TRUE IDENTITY IN CHRIST
Here is a true story about a man who
lives in an apartment in Rockville's suburbs, Maryland, USA. His name is Jay
Speights. He has a modest career as a pastor. He doesn't own a car. Jay grew up
in a family of African Americans in New Jersey. There wasn't much documentation
about his family history, and he had spent much of his life wondering about his
ancestry. Jay decided to take a DNA test through the genealogy organization
Ancestry.
Within minutes of entering his information
into the database, the website returned a result: "royal DNA." That
changed everything for Rev. Dr. Jay Speights. Can you imagine how stunned you
would be if that news were given to you? All your life, you thought you were
just an ordinary person…then you discovered you had royal heritage."[1]
"In January 2019, Speights boarded a
plane in Virginia and landed in Benin 36 hours later, to experience a grand
Royal Welcome with great pomp and celebration. "Welcome to the kingdom of
Allada, land of your ancestors," the posters said in French. He spent the
next week in what he calls "prince school," learning local customs
and visiting various sites and dignitaries.
He was enthroned by the King, given white
lace robes to signal he is a holy man, and several crowns." "This was
the most beautiful thing I have ever done," he said. "I am the
descendant of slaves. I am the descendant of a family that was involved in the
slave trade. And I'm just starting to make sense of that." Before he left
Benin, Speights said, the King gave him a new name: Videkon Deka. It means the
child who came back."[2]
Along with pastoral responsibilities, Jay
Speights now accepted the princely responsibilities as well. This true,
real-life story has several spiritual implications. Like Jay, we all struggle
to make sense of who we really are. We take on an identity, which is either
given to us by the kind of family we were born into, by education, or by
vocation. But the internal dissatisfaction with our identity and a quest to
find out who we really were born to be, and our true purpose, intensifies and will
only end when we come to Christ; then everything changes. To your shocking
surprise, you will find out you are more than what you thought you were. Today,
we will learn about our True Identity in Christ and its
implications. I Peter 2:9-10
I. Our Old Sinful Identity.
In our former church, an Alcoholics Anonymous
group used to meet. As a pastor, I wanted to attend to get to know them and
possibly minister to them. Their typical meeting would begin this way:
"Good Evening, ladies and gentlemen." This is the regular meeting of
the group of Alcoholics Anonymous. My name is Ken, and I am an alcoholic and
your Secretary.
The group would cheer Ken, thinking that what
a humble man Ken is, not hiding away his true self as an alcoholic. But was he
admitting his sinful identity? How about if he introduced himself this way, "Hi,
my name is Ken, and I am a Sinner and your Secretary? Well, that was not only
Ken's but all of our old, sinful identity. The scriptures say, in Romans 3:22-23,
"There is no difference
between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus."
As sinners, if we remain in
sin and die in sin, we are destined to be separated from God and live in hell
forever. But thank God, out of His abundant love for us, He sent a redeeming
savior who died on the cross to take away, and never to remember our sins and
declare us not guilty of our sin and grant us eternal life with Him in Heaven. "For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23
What was our old, sinful identity
like? This is how Eugene Peterson, in The Message, describes our old self: "It
wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, easy marks for
sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our
shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God,
stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to
do with it.
He gave us a good bath, and
we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our
Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God's gift has restored our
relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to
come—an eternity of life! You can count on this." Titus 3:3-8. Because of
what Christ has done on the cross for us, and when we come to Him in repentance,
our Old Sinful Self will be transformed into a New Self.
II. Our True Identity In Christ
Our True Identity in Christ begins with having
faith in Him. John 1:11-12, "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet
to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he
gave the right to become children of God." This privilege of
becoming is open for all people, but only those who believe in the name of
Jesus and receive him as their Savior will have the right to become God's sons
and daughters.
Apostle Peter rightly describes our True Identity
in Christ. I Peter 2:9-10, "But you are a chosen
people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special
possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of
darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a
people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received
mercy, but now you have received mercy." Can you imagine what this
means to us today?
In our former state of life,
we experienced rejection of various kinds and lived in darkness, satisfying our
sinful desires. Though we may have had an earthly family, we lived like
spiritual orphans, not knowing who we truly belonged to and what our true
purpose is. But in Christ all that was changed: We are chosen by God, belong to
a Royal family of priests, and share the blessings of the nation of Israel. We
received God's Mercy. Our true identity and purpose have always been like those
who have obeyed God in the past, namely, to glorify God.
Exodus 19:5-6, "Now if
you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my
treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a
kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to
the Israelites."
By having our faith in God,
we too become the heirs of Abraham and share the same privileges and
responsibilities with the nation of Israel. Our True Identity in Christ is that
we are part of God's royal family, the children of the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. As the pastor in the introduction said, how are we living out
our newly discovered Princely Heritage now?
III. Living like A Child of the King Of the
Universe
By
faith, we can boldly declare that we are the Children of the King of the
Universe. Consider these scriptures: "Let Israel rejoice in their Maker, let
the people of Zion be glad in their King." Psalm 149:2, Paul recognized
his past life before Christ and his future princely standing in Christ. I
Timothy 1:15-17, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full
acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the
worst.
But for that very reason, I was shown mercy
so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense
patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal
life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and
glory for ever and ever." How can we honor our eternal King and live like
a Prince in this world?
To do that, we may have to unlearn certain
sinful behaviors and learn princely behaviors. Like the pastor in the story, we
may have to go through a "prince school," in this case, the school of
the Holy Spirit, who will teach us what God's Kingdom is like and how the
children of the King ought to behave, etc. This is what it looks like to live
like a prince of the Most High King.
We will abstain from sinful desires that wage
war against our souls. I Peter 2:11 We will learn what God's Kingdom is like
and its principles by reading His Word regularly. We will not return to our
former sinful ways; instead, we will adopt a lifestyle that aligns with God's
Kingdom. The pastor in the story "was enthroned by the King, given white
lace robes to signal he is a holy man, and several crowns." Similarly, God
declares us holy and clothes us with garments of salvation and wraps us with a
robe of righteousness." Isaiah 61:10.
As God's chosen people, we clothe ourselves
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Col 3:12-14. We
will work hard and live honestly. (Eph 4:28). We will speak the truth, forgive
one another, and above all, put on love which binds all things together.
